Does the jet wind speed in Jupiter's atmosphere fluctuate in roughly four-year periods?

Constant velocity field and radial component of background magnetic field at 0.9 RJ. The hummock-area bump is with the central meridian at 180° in coordinate system III (highlighted in gray). The central meridian is the zero line for steady flow. The color scale for the linear background magnetic field model is specified between The current velocity is scaled with latitude to account for the polar convergence of the meridians. The peak velocity (corresponding to the equatorial jet) is 0.86 cm/s-1. Credit: Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07046-3

A team of planetary scientists from several institutions in the United States has found a jet in Jupiter's atmosphere that oscillates in roughly four-year periods. In their paper, published in the journal Nature, the group describes how to find the jet and examine its properties using data from the Juno spacecraft.

Jupiter has a large magnetosphere, some parts of which extend to the orbit of Saturn. The planet's magnetic field is about 20 times that of Earth, making it a good target for research. Also, the fact that Jupiter is a gas giant and has no shell makes it a good target. This makes it much easier to study the dynamics that are responsible for maintaining the magnetosphere compared to the dynamics that generate the Earth's magnetic field.

NASA sent a probe specifically designed to measure and map the planet's magnetic field — the Juno probe launched in 2011 and entered Jupiter's polar orbit in 2016. Since then, it has sent back valuable information about many aspects of the planet, including Magnetic field. In this new effort, the researchers focused on data surrounding an atmospheric jet.

Wind speeds can cause atmospheric jets to create high-speed currents that sweep through the planet's atmosphere, similar in some ways to the jet stream on Earth. In this new effort, the research team focused on a jet in a circular region on Jupiter called the "Great Blue Spot." By studying data describing the jet's properties, the researchers found that it has wave-like oscillations that repeat in roughly four-year periods.

Convective currents from within the metallic hydrogen pool that forms part of the planet's inner atmosphere. Such a jet would almost certainly have periodicity in centuries, not years.

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